Michael FitzGerald c1880s Shambles Barracks Newbridge/Galway

[karhel]

Michael FitzGerald, soldier c1880s.     married at   Newbridge 1885.    Could anyone help or advise  me  to find which Regiment Michael was in at this time.   born c1843   died  1901
karhel.
 

[iluleah]

This may help http://www.kildare.ie/library/ehistory/2012/08/newbridge_barracks_the_first_u.asp

[Sinann]

It may help the search to know he was in Curragh Camp Kildare January 1885,  Shambles Camp Galway Nov 1885, and a son was born Barton Regis 1887.

[MaxD]

The listings of Stations of the Army, while throwing up regiments in those places at relevant times during 1885, don't produce any consistent result.  For example, the 1st Dragoons were at Newbridge in Jan 85, the 5th Dragoons took over from them in mid year and were still there in Dec 1885.  There is no regiment I can find to have been in the Curragh and Galway in the months given.

That doesn't mean that he wasn't in those places.  The Stations list covers the main units of the army, not all of them and barracks rarely had representatives from only one regiment in them.  The Curragh in particular contained a number of regiments.  At the Curragh in Jan 1885 were 4 battalions of infantry, a brigade of field artillery and a company of engineers. There were companies of the Commissariat and Transport Corps everywhere but being unglamorous tend not to show up in  lists!  The army also had a habit of stationing parts of regiments in different places.

I feel that trying to find him by location is unlikely to succeed - do the marriage and birth certs not give a regiment??

MaxD

[Sinann]

Soldier on marriage cert on the Curragh,
Mess man on first child's cert in Shambles.
Don't know about Barton Regis.

[MaxD]

Another go round the buoy.  The only regiment listed in Galway in November 1885 was the 1st Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment, they had been there all year and I can't tie them to the other places.  Failed I'm afraid.

MaxD

[eemz]

Early 1880s at the Shambles Barracks, Galway was most likely the Connaught Rangers. They were formed in 1881 by amalgamation of the 88th and 94th Regiment of Foot and their official base was Renmore Barracks, but that barracks was brand new, only opened in 1881 and their previous barracks the Shambles took several years to transfer fully.

Photo of the Shambles:
https://www.facebook.com/343507811543/photos/a.343572501543.157648.343507811543/10154336184671544/?type=3

[eemz]

> The only regiment listed in Galway in November 1885 was the 1st Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment

Militarily, the whole of Ireland was administered as a separate command within the United Kingdom. So it's possible that Irish regiments were not included in English sources of the period? Galway was the home base of the Connaught Rangers until their disbandment in the early 20th century.

[MaxD]

All regiments Irish or not are listed in the official Naval and Military Gazette of the time.

In November 1885, 1st Battalion Connaught Rangers were in Bengal, 2nd Battalion in Templemore Tipperary (they had been in Fermoy in January-July/August 1885).

MaxD